“I suddenly started seeing a lot of Vietnam Veteran plates. … I said, ‘wait a minute, that’s not right,’ ” he said. “It sort of diminishes the idea of serving in a combat zone.”

Weinstein, 61, got his first Vietnam Veteran plates in 1995.

But the requirement that veterans serve “in country,” as the Republic of Vietnam was referred to, seems to be lost in history, since the plates are now open to anyone who was in the military during the “Vietnam era” between Dec. 22, 1961 and May 7, 1975.

Weinstein raised the issue with his local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, and wrote to lawmakers.

As it turns out, some states do require veterans seeking the plates to have served in Vietnam, but in New York it appears that a combination of bureaucratic inertia, the vagaries of politics and the desire to reap extra fees from the specialized plates has meant there’s no such requirement.